Sure. If you looked like a student or a professor, i.e. you looked like you belonged there. But, I never noticed anyone who didn’t.

As an engineer employed on Route 128, I often went in to MIT to access the libraries and seminars.

I’ve never heard of any problems. So sad, it’s all CYA and unwarranted fear these days.

Sometimes if I had spare time in Boston and didn’t have anywhere to be I’d go to the Barker library (under the great dome). You could just stroll by most buildings on campus. I really liked that about MIT.

Well, not just any. All of the dorms had access controls. Some of the business school buildings and floors had access control. There was a somewhat-noted case in the late aughts of MIT campus hackers (tunnel, shaft, and crawlspace-explorers and pranksters that the university somewhat turns a blind eye to) who had to fight trespassing charges after walking through an unlocked door.

Labs and some buildings were locked by most hallways and open spaces were available to the public. I've always spent time at MIT when in the area. This is a real bummer but it isn't like the institution hasn't gone down hill in many other ways already.

After hours in the winter it was always a fun routing challenge to figure out how to get from one place to another across the campus while spending the minimum amount of time out in the cold only using doors that were likely to be unlocked.

I wonder if this ultimately means the end of Mystery Hunt (at least as anything except an online event)?

It's on campus AFAIK: https://mitmh2023.com/

I wonder if going forward events like this will use this sort of reservation/ticket-based system. Perhaps someone more in the know can weigh in.

True, it's not commonplace to have the buildings be open like that. But that's one of the things that set MIT apart, and it sucks to see it go away. I for one will do my best to see these policies overturned.

University of Toronto has a similar policy of buildings being open to all during business hours (or at least did a few years ago), and it's right in the middle of downtown as well.

AFAIK most Boston schools (even BU which doesn’t even have a defined campus and just exists in the city) have almost no restrictions on entry to academic buildings except libraries. There might be some rules here and there about student access only but nobody checks and nobody cares.